The Tribes: Ascend website is now accepting signups for Hi-Rez Studios' revival of this beloved multiplayer shooter series. They offer client downloads and account registration for the free-to-play game, and here's word on what to expect:

Hi-Rez Studios, independent developer of AAA free-to-play online games, today announced the official release of Tribes: Ascend. The fast-paced, sci-fi multiplayer shooter has completed Beta testing and is now a live PC game available for digital download.

Tribes: Ascend is the world's fastest shooter. The game features jetpacks, skiing, vehicles, team-based gameplay, and cutting-edge graphics using Unreal 3 technology. With this official release, the game is available for download directly from the developer at www.tribesascend.com.

Recent additions include the CTF map Raindance, as well as a new game-mode called Capture and Hold. The Release build also includes a preview of the Custom Server functionality that will soon be available to players.

"For the past 15 months, we've had a very passionate dev team working hard toward this goal," said Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios COO. "Along the way some publishers told us modern gamers couldn't handle an FPS that was fast-paced and skill-based. We believe otherwise. Players seem to agree since we've had well over 500,000 join our Beta. We're excited to now grow the community further with the official release."

elefunk wrote on Apr 12, 2012, 16:56:If the only thing you come away with is "pay to win" after reading the PC Gamer review, you're being obscenely obtuse, ignorant, and willfully ignoring the words posted not just in the review, but even the little snippet I quoted.

Tribes Ascend is one of the most perfect and fair implementations of free-to-play I've ever seen. It's right up there with League of Legends and Team Fortress 2. You cannot pay to win. Skill matters above all. Everything that matters can be purchased with experience you earn for free.

And, most importantly, you can get a ridiculous amount of variety in classes and loadouts for a measely $13. You're paying for variety, not advantage.

Well said sir!

I was an avid Tribes & Tribes 2 fan (too much so, I ended up getting my keyboard thrown outside in the rain by my wife) and am absolutely LOVING this game. My only critique is that the skiing is a bit too easy. I gave em $30 more to support the developers than to unlock anything.Juggs FTW!

I was a Tribes 1 player and watching the COD generation learn how to play Tribes Ascend is fun for me. I expect them to figure it out sooner rather than later, don't mistake my comment for a put-down.

But now instead of scrolling and shooting as fast as possible, they've got to deal with challenges normally reserved for flight sims- wide open terrain, energy limits in z-axis maneuvering and most importantly target lead.

In short they keep aiming right at me in flight and missing.

It's a pretty fun game right now- when more people figure out how to play it it will be a blast.

If it gets VOIP it will be the best EVAR1

Here's a longer thought:

$29.99 in my case was enough to unlock the better primary weapons and a couple of worthwhile perks for three classes- soldier, whatever they call the sniper and the technician. Basically, I picked just the three classes that match my preferred gameplay style then picked the most expensive stuff for just them. I didn't bother to unlock the classes that don't interest me the most- maybe later. After that and with the xp booster I'm pulling about 3000 XP per match with no points-farming crap.

I think that most people would do better that way- specialization vs. just getting all the classes unlocked. Once you get a few very effective (or even one if you don't mind the lack of variety) classes+ the XP booster you can starting scoring enough XP to unlock the others.

pagb wrote on Apr 13, 2012, 05:27:Word of warning! The launcher for this thing installs a windows service that cannot be disabled if you want to play.

Services like the one you are complaining about are the way that Google Chrome, the latest Adobe Flash (soon Adobe Reader) use to silently update themselves without requiring the user to provide administrator credentials.

Windows 7 (and Windows Vista before it) were designed so you wouldn't NEED administrator credentials in order to do minor things such as upgrading existing applications. That Google and Adobe are apparently too lazy to program their applications correctly is one thing, but having to have an actual service running for such things is beyond ludicrous.

pagb wrote on Apr 13, 2012, 05:27:Word of warning! The launcher for this thing installs a windows service that cannot be disabled if you want to play.

Services like the one you are complaining about are the way that Google Chrome, the latest Adobe Flash (soon Adobe Reader) use to silently update themselves without requiring the user to provide administrator credentials. Hi-Rez is doing what others have already done. Also that service handles some kind of authentication as well. You can probably find some more information about it on hi-rez forums.

I don't think it actually qualifies as customer support when the issue is beta testing a game for free. You're certainly free to be butthurt about whatever you like though. The game is pretty fun and I'll play it occasionally.

I wish the Unreal engine would die already. Another game that doesn't support eyefinity. The only way I'm playing this on one screen is if they're going to play it at a LAN party. The Old Republic worked day-one with eyefinity.

xXBatmanXx wrote on Apr 12, 2012, 18:50:You apparently have never used your grappling hook to get across the map quicker than a lightning bolt!

Quake 1 CTF - Threewave Capture the Flag FTW!!!!! Just watching videos and listening to the sounds brings me back to 1996.

Ah yes…….that sound/game is forever tattooed in my brain. I was addicted to Quake1 ThreeWave CTF like a good/bad drug. I must have been, easily, putting in 30+ hours a week playing.....yes, the addiction was that bad. I am a recovered Quakeaholic now.

Ditto! I used to play Q1CTF so f-ing much when it came out, and some of the fondest experiences I remember were on random single player maps with the bases set up in wonky spots with some epically ridiculous defenses, LOL Grapple was so much fun in quake 1. (I miss painkeep, & zerstorer, & quake rally, & so many other long gone mods too. when rocket arena first came out.. god damn that was so much fun)

xXBatmanXx wrote on Apr 12, 2012, 18:50:You apparently have never used your grappling hook to get across the map quicker than a lightning bolt!

Quake 1 CTF - Threewave Capture the Flag FTW!!!!! Just watching videos and listening to the sounds brings me back to 1996.

Oh man. That is one of the seminal games(mods?) that changed gaming for me. I remember for the first few weeks that was out myself and a bunch of other IT guys were all playing very late into the night on the office lan, setup our own server to play against other people online, etc. I was just living and breathing that mod. That flag cap sound will always be ingrained into my brain and has me keyed into a total Pavlovian response of pleasure when I hear it.

Veterator wrote on Apr 12, 2012, 22:43:Capture and Hold mode is not very good. Needs SOMETHING to make it more focused, slower caps (5 second turnovers is stupid), and it has definite favoritism to a handful of classes by design.

Which is funny because one of their biggest excuses for not allowing you to customize your loadout and force fix classes was so people would use a variety of balanced classes. What bullcrap. Yeah people gravitated toward some popular loadouts, but I'll take that freedom over this TA fixed limited class bullcrap. Now all you have is limitations and people gravitating toward a few specific popular fixed classes. This isnt really Tribes. Its more like a variant or mod of Tribes. At least it looks pretty. Thats all I can say in a positive light for now. Grinding in a classic fps like Tribes is sad. very sad. Those COD machine gun weapons need a spread like the tribes chaingun. Yeah you know the actual "Tribes" chaingun.

xXBatmanXx wrote on Apr 12, 2012, 18:50:You apparently have never used your grappling hook to get across the map quicker than a lightning bolt!

Quake 1 CTF - Threewave Capture the Flag FTW!!!!! Just watching videos and listening to the sounds brings me back to 1996.

Oh man. That is one of the seminal games(mods?) that changed gaming for me. I remember for the first few weeks that was out myself and a bunch of other IT guys were all playing very late into the night on the office lan, setup our own server to play against other people online, etc. I was just living and breathing that mod. That flag cap sound will always be ingrained into my brain and has me keyed into a total Pavlovian response of pleasure when I hear it.

"You can check your anatomy all you want, and even though there may be normal variation, when it comes right down to it, this far inside the head it all looks the same. No, no, no, don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."

xXBatmanXx wrote on Apr 12, 2012, 18:50:You apparently have never used your grappling hook to get across the map quicker than a lightning bolt!

Quake 1 CTF - Threewave Capture the Flag FTW!!!!! Just watching videos and listening to the sounds brings me back to 1996.

Ah yes…….that sound/game is forever tattooed in my brain. I was addicted to Quake1 ThreeWave CTF like a good/bad drug. I must have been, easily, putting in 30+ hours a week playing.....yes, the addiction was that bad. I am a recovered Quakeaholic now.